David Michael Miller
Few of us would want to be held accountable for everything we wrote or said 20 years ago. Heck, I’d rather not be held accountable for anything I wrote 20 days ago.
So, I would be inclined to give Justice Rebecca Bradley a pass for what she wrote as a Marquette University student back in 1992. I would, except that her comments reveal a fundamental character flaw that goes beyond the topic at hand at the time.
In her article in the Marquette Tribune, Bradley referred to those suffering from AIDS as “degenerates” and said that they would be getting the benefits of research and treatment that might otherwise go toward cancer patients. That claim was ridiculous. AIDS and cancer weren’t part of some zero-sum competition for resources. There’s no evidence that the fight against cancer ever suffered because of the battle against AIDS. So, to set up a false choice between worthy cancer patients and AIDS victims who were apparently the cause of their own pain was not only factually incorrect but also reprehensible.
But what’s really troubling is that Bradley must have known the torture that AIDS victims were going through at the time and the toll that seeing their loved ones die a slow and painful wasting death was having on their family and friends — even family and friends who did nothing to expose themselves to the affliction. And yet she chose a very derisive term to describe them. What it indicates is a lack of compassion.
Bradley may well have changed her political views since that time — and conveniently so given the rapid switch to public acceptance and even support for same-sex marriage and gays in general — but has she developed a sense of empathy even for those with whom she disagrees?
When confronted with questions about her student writings she’s fallen back on the now familiar line of candidates like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz: the media’s the problem. They should just let it drop.
No. They shouldn’t. Bradley should continue to have to deal with these questions until she can convince voters not just that she has come to adopt views that are now politically mainstream, but that she’s also developed a mature sense of tolerance and understanding even for those with whom she disagrees.
